Kempton Park Photographer publishes first novel

Kempton Park photographer Chukwudi Austin-Willy Udeh published a book via Amazon publishers to help the less privileged.

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The book, titled Irresistible Doom, was released in May and, according to the author, the book was inspired by the amount of abuse suffered by women in society.

The 35-yeara-old author came to South Africa in 2006 and said he has been writing stories and poems for pleasure since his school days.

“I’ve written articles for publications in various newspapers and magazines.

“I’ve also worked in the area of marriage, rehabilitation, addiction and youth counselling,” said Udeh.

Being a strong advocate for the emancipation of woman and the rights of the girl child, Chukwudi said he decided on the idea of the book in order to help raise funds to help the less privileged.

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This was after he witnessed the devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic had on local community members.

“When the clubs that I was affiliated with could not raise funds to help the less privileged as a result of the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on community members’ businesses, I came up with this book as another way of raising funds,” said Udeh.

The author, who has raised funds to help the poor in the past by organising football matches, said half of the funds generated from the book will be donated to local charities within the City of Ekurhuleni.

“The funds will be donated to less privileged homes such as Casa Caritas in Edleen, All Stars shelter on Maxwell Street and Tumelo Home in Ivory Park.”

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According to Udeh, Irresistible Doom follows the life of a South African country girl and University of Nottingham graduate of English Language, whose excitement at getting an international appointment in Nigeria is cut short when she consents to a seemingly innocuous date with a nouveau riche Nigerian national, living in her country.

“She now has to deal with pregnancy and marriage. Her travels through the murky waters of love, drug addiction and prostitution was vividly captured with her final triumph as the heroine of the war waged on the frontiers of violence against women and drug abuse,” said Chukwudi.

Chukwudi said he hopes to create awareness about the level of lies and deceptions in society that are masked in the form of love or tradition which so many of young women fall prey to.

“This is necessary as unsuspecting young women are lured out and the effect includes gender-based violence, substance abuse, unfulfilled dreams, ending up on the streets, jails or even death.”

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The author is currently working on his second book and hopes through Irresistible Doom he can bridge the knowledge gap among the women in the community who fall prey to the deception of love and become susceptible to slavery and different types of abuses.

“I just wish that the book will give hope to the women in this predicament to arise and fight for their liberation and fulfill their dreams,” he said.

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